


Ghost Of My Dreams

by posiexhandon



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Handon Weekly Halloween Challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27312670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/posiexhandon/pseuds/posiexhandon
Summary: Once upon a time, a girl had lived and she had died. Once upon a time, a boy dreamed of a girl and he had fallen in love.
Relationships: Landon Kirby & Hope Mikaelson, Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson
Comments: 14
Kudos: 26





	1. Her Name Was Hope

Sirens wailed all around as a crowd gathered to see the wreckage in the middle of a parking lot of the heaviest populated shopping mall in town, on one of the busiest nights of the year so far. There was a silver sedan blocking a large portion of one of the aisles as the owner of it, a burly teenage boy, had abandoned it in an effort to help. There was a small girl crying loudly, scrapes of gravel along her cheek and arms and she was being cradled by two young women who could only be her parents, as they tried to calm their daughter down while also letting tears of relief and sadness fall down their own cheeks. The sirens grew louder, the crowd expanded and with each passing moment, a life was rapidly fading away.

The teenage boy knelt a couple yards in front of his sedan, desperately trying to save the life he had suddenly taken, trying with all his might and breath to give the life back to the lifeless teenage girl that laid broken, bloodied and cracked in front of him. He was in a rush and hadn't been paying attention because he was trying to text his girlfriend an apology that he was on his way to her place after he had lost track of time hanging out with his buddies. He didn’t see the little girl, who was now being held by her moms, run into the middle of the lane because she tossed her doll too far up and too out of reach. She hadn’t looked both ways before making a dash to catch her doll. The doll that was now squished and tattered under the tires of the boy’s sedan. There was no time to break without a collision happening but in the blink of an eye, a teenage girl leapt forward just in time and pushed the little girl out of harm’s way. Yes, the doll had met its bitter end but the little girl had survived with scrapes and bruises that would heal. And the one that saved the little girl? Well, all that was left for her was the light.

The ambulance and police had arrived not long after, though it had felt like an eternity since the front of the boy’s car had made impact with the teenage girl, sending her flying and twisting her body in ways it should not be twisted. The first responders had shoved the boy over to get to the already dead girl lying in front of him. He had hope that perhaps they could still save her. The crowd had hope. The little girl that was saved had hope but that quickly vanished because hope had died on impact. That was the teenage girl, a martyr, a savior. A hero.

Her name was Hope and she stood next to the boy that had killed her. She was no longer one with her body, she was no longer alive, yet she was still here. She wasn’t visible, she wasn’t tangible, she was barely even vapor. She was dead, but she wasn’t gone. She watched as the first responders declared her dead on the scene. She watched with tears in her eyes but never let them fall. She stood there next to the boy while police officers took his statement. She watched as her body was zipped up in a body bag and slid into the medical examiner’s van. She watched as the scene was cleared and everyone left.

Soon after the scene was cleared, she appeared at home to a site worse than seeing her own wrecked body lying in the middle of the road. She watched her family’s faces go from pale to broken to absolutely mangled as the officers on scene arrived to deliver the devastating news. She watched as her father tore through the entire house, causing a wreckage of his own, at the loss of his little girl. She watched her mother fall to her knees, curling up as if she was trying to disappear into her own self because a life without her daughter wasn’t a life at all. She watched each of her aunts and uncles lose all goodness in them as they realized the youngest of their clan died before she really got to live. Watching her family’s devastation unfold one by one brought upon her own sadness for the simple fact that she had decided one life was worth saving over her own. She didn’t regret saving that little girl, she just wished she didn’t have to watch her family fall apart because of her split second decision.  
Hope didn’t have to watch for long because she soon faded to only where the dead could go. She faded and was suddenly in the unknown, except the unknown was now known to her. And she did not like what she saw.

_*****2 WEEKS LATER*****_

“Hey, you must be Landon Kirby. My name is Milton Greasley but you can call me MG. I’ll be your official student liaison for the day, to help you settle in.” A dark teenage boy with a well groomed afro and a winning smile held his hand out for the new student to the school. Landon, an ashen looking boy with dark curly hair and intense green eyes stood in front of the student guide with his hood up and earphones on. He hadn’t heard a word MG had said but seeing that his hand was stuck out, Landon promptly took his earphones out and shook the boy’s hand.

“Sorry, could you repeat that?” Landon asked, not particularly enthused about starting at this new school because his old foster home didn’t work out the way he had hoped. They had decided to adopt his foster brother instead of both of them, financial reasons he guessed though very unlikely, and it really still stung.

“Name’s MG. I’ll show you to your locker and do a walk-through with you on your classes so you’re not totally lost around here. The school takes their inclusion policy seriously as it immediately extends to new students.” MG smiled and answered with a little more info than Landon asked for but with a smile like that, it made the interaction more at ease. Landon always felt out of place and not welcomed, but MG genuinely seemed like he enjoyed being a helping hand and connecting with people. With the luck Landon has had, he was grateful for a break from the usual new student bashing.

“I’m Landon, nice to meet you.” Landon answered as he shoved his earphones into his jacket pockets. Now that formalities were out of the way, MG led them out of the register’s office and into the next building where the main student lockers were. The hallways were plain, nothing out of the ordinary and filled with your typical high school cliches. The jocks and the cheerleaders, the drama kinds, the band geeks, the goths, the future politicians, the stoners and any other cliche you could think of, they were all here. They had passed by a trio of girls that were standing in front of what looked like a bulletin board but more of a bulletin case. Landon couldn’t see what was behind the glass but MG had ushered him passed them quickly.

“Sorry for hurrying you. That was the Saltzman twins and Penelope Park and I humiliated myself in front of them yesterday so I really don’t want to show my face around them at the moment heh. They’re kind of like school royalty. Everyone wants to date them or be their friend. Except Lizzie, the blonde one, is the only available one. Josie, the brunette and Penelope, the short one, are kind of a thing since junior high.” MG rushed through his explanation.

“Ah, I take it you kind of have a thing for one of them?” Landon asked, immediately understanding MG’s predicament.

“Lizzie Saltzman. That obvious?” MG responded as they stopped in front of a locker, 728. Landon just nodded at him before turning to the locker and putting in his combination. The locker opened with ease and as he started to load the books for the classes he didn’t have today, into the locker, MG promptly listed all the special little things that made Lizzie Saltzman absolutely divine in his eyes. Landon was partially listening. Okay, he wasn’t listening at all to be honest, because he was positive he wouldn’t be around long enough to remember any of the people here. It always took him a couple of times to find a new foster family that would stick for a while.

"She sounds great.” Landon said as he closed his locker, which also shut MG up from droning on about a girl Landon could care less about.

“Oh she is, she’s just-” MG started to have heart eyes all over again so Landon decided to finish his sentence so he wouldn’t continue to drag on.

“Absolutely divine. Yeah, so I’ve been told.” Landon managed a closed mouth grin and MG took the hint to continue on with the campus tour as well as showing Landon where all of his classes were located and that was it for the student liaison, Landon was on his own and that was how he preferred it.

He went through the motions, doing the basic introduction he’s perfected over the years, when each of his teachers ask him to introduce himself. And just like the years before, the snickers came and the battalion of spitballs against his neck remained unrelenting. The trips in the hallway and the slams against the locker. The words _freak_ and _nerd_ thrown at him like they were brilliant and one of a kind insults, but they weren’t. It was the same everywhere he went and he didn’t expect anything different. Lunch came and went, nothing exciting unless he counted the supposed meatloaf that was served in the cafeteria since it strangely tasted like tuna casserole mashed up and baked over to make it look like meatloaf.

It’s the last class of the day and after Landon made yet another introduction, they’re assigned a group project that’ll be due in a month. To his dismay, he’s paired up with this tall burly looking guy and a small girl with a dark complexion, who could only be the burly guy’s girlfriend with the way they were clinging to each other. He learns that his name is Rafael but goes by Raf and her name is Cassie. He doesn’t pay much attention for the rest of the class and he lets them pick the topic of her presentation. The bell rings and he bolts back to his locker for nothing in particular if only to avoid walking into the line of fire of the popular kids right after school. Normally hanging around his locker and missing his bus allows him to avoid any humiliation the populars might inflict on him. He’s used to this routine, it’s the same no matter where he goes. He likes to walk anyway, even if the home he’s being fostered at is two miles away.

As students fill the hallways, catching up with their friends and leaving campus to do whatever teenagers do to pass their time and procrastinate on their homework, Landon keeps his head ducked into his locker, making it look like he’s very intently organizing it. It’s because of this particular act of faked nonchalance that he stumbles upon a hidden compartment in the top of the locker. Why is there a hidden compartment in a school locker and who would waste their time putting it there? Immediately, Landon has a thought that maybe this locker belonged to a drug dealer that maybe used to go to school here, since it is a perfect space to hide a stash if a locker raid were ever to happen. Let’s face it, Landon’s seen his share of locker raids with the many schools he’s attended, and making a secret compartment made sense in that manner. He knows he shouldn’t open it but curiosity is a sickness sometimes, one that can only be quelled with the revelation of that which stirs the curious mind in the first place.

What he finds isn’t a stash of drugs or getaway cash or anything remotely related to a drug dealer’s or an active drug user’s illicit possessions. It’s a small, silver bracelet shaped to look like a watch, a girl’s bracelet he guessed. The chain of the bracelet was a delicate design that looked like chains made up of other chains, about one inch in width when put together. The core of the bracelet where typically a pendant or a charm will take residence, is instead taken up by a small silver circle about the size of a quarter with a water drop looking arrow, similar to a compass but Landon doubted this was a compass. If it was, then it was missing the vital information of which way was north, south, east and west. Still, what was this bracelet doing in his locker? If it was in that secret compartment, he could only guess that it was quite valuable to its owner. But then, why was it left behind?

“Landon! Hey!” A male’s voice called out which caused him to shove the bracelet into his jacket before he could be caught with an item that was clearly not suited for him. Landon turned and he saw Raf walking towards him.

“Oh, hey Raf. Sorry I bolted from class so quick, first day jitters I guess.” Landon responded so as not to be rude. As Raf approached him, Landon shut and locked his locker then slung his bag over his shoulder.

“I get it man. I’ve moved around a lot myself, so I get it. Anyway, Cas and I were gonna meet up with a bunch of people at the diner in town. Was wondering if you’d like to join in?” Raf asked and smiled. Was this actually a nice gesture or was Raf and his group of friends in the midst of a prank they were pulling on him. Landon could never be sure and he wasn’t in the mood to find out.

“Thanks for the invite but uh.. maybe next time. I’ve gotta get home.” Landon answered then nodded before turning away to head out the door.

“If you change your mind, it’s called the Mystic Grill if you wanna stop by and it’s more a pub than a diner.” Raf called out as he walked out the front doors. He didn’t make a gesture to acknowledge the extended invite but he made a mental note regarding the Mystic Grill, about how it’s a place he should actively avoid if he wants to minimize any chance of humiliation.

The walk home wasn’t so bad once he plugged in his earphones. Music was always his constant, no matter what happened in his life, he could always count on music to be there. It’s the reason why he saved up every single allowance money the many foster parents had given him throughout the years, so that he’d be able to buy his own guitar and learn it. Something to be his, something he wouldn’t have to leave behind. His guitar was his best friend and most days it was all he needed. He had worked his fingers raw when learning all the different chords and strumming patterns, making up his own strumming patterns along the way. His hands were calloused and rough by the time he started to learn how to pick. He spent day and night on his guitar, he spent day and night immersed in music if he could. It provided him friendship but it also provided him with both a mental and physical escape from the day to day mundane routines. As long as he had music, he’d be okay.

_BEEEEEP!!_ A loud car horn sounded and Landon jumped back from the curb. He hadn’t been paying attention, he nearly walked right into oncoming traffic a block away from his house. The car drove off and the driver was probably yelling obscenities at him for being a stupid and irresponsible kid for not looking both ways. Landon heard none of that as the drums wailed away on his earphones. He continued on his way until he made it home to an empty house. As soon as he got in and shut the door behind him, he took his earphones out and shrugged his jacket off, exhaling in relief that he made it through the first day.

A clattering sound came once the jacket was off which immediately sent alarm to course through Landon but he soon realized that it was just the locker bracelet he hid in his jacket. He had forgotten all about it on his way home and didn’t give it another thought when he picked it up on his way to his room and tossed it onto his night stand. He changed out of his school clothes and went back down to start cooking dinner and going through his assigned chapter readings for the night. He let dinner cool before taking his portion and shoving the rest of it into the fridge for Hector and Maria to heat up when they got home from work, whenever that may be. Landon finished up his calculus homework as he ate dinner, he cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for bed.

His favorite thing to do was to play his guitar just before falling asleep because he claimed it always brought him good dreams and so far it has. And so he played his guitar, no particular song, just whatever felt right and good. Sometimes he would fall asleep with his hands still gripping his guitar, holding a chord out or in mid-strum. Tonight was one of those nights. He played for hours before Hector and Maria came home and he played for hours after they went to bed. When Landon finally went to sleep, he dreamt of his locker. No wait, that’s not entirely accurate. He dreamt of a girl that was standing in front of his locker and she was humming the melody he had fallen asleep strumming his guitar to. He had never seen this girl in his life but she was single-handedly the most infinitely perfect girl in the world. _This girl_ , Landon thought to himself in his dream, _this girl is the literal definition of dream girl._ She had wavy auburn hair, piercingly blue eyes and though her lips were curved down into a frown, they still looked full and delectable. She was sad, he could tell, but that didn’t make her any less beautiful.

The thing that surprised him the most about this girl wasn’t how beautiful she was. It wasn’t even the fact that she was standing in front of his locker with it wide open to her. No, it was the fact that she was staring directly at him, her eyes looking into his. She wasn’t blinking or moving a muscle, almost like she was studying him, like she was curious of him. He was caught off guard by it along with her beauty but he finally pulled himself together before he could fully disappear into her gaze.

“Uh hi. I’m Landon uh… and that’s my locker.” Landon told the girl stupidly. Well that wasn’t really a great first impression but maybe he could have a do-over again tomorrow night, if he manages the same dream that is. The girl jumped back looking startled, because let’s be honest, any girl Landon talks to typically does jump back in repulsiveness. Though she neither looked repulsed or disgusted, which made this girl even more fascinating.

“You.. you can.. see me?” The girl answered but before Landon could give a response, she was gone before his eyes.


	2. The Unknown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope had died saving a little girl she never knew. She wasn't afraid of dying, only sad that she didn't have enough time.
> 
> But death, as it seems, isn't what Hope had thought it would be.

Hope was floating, at least that’s what it looked like. It’s what it felt like too. The moment she started floating she became transparent and weak. She was being pulled towards a dark force emitting a green light and she wasn’t the only one. All around her were other transparent, floating entities that she couldn’t quite make out. They looked human but not really. She looked human, but not really. With each passing moment, all of them, including Hope, were fading back into color and gaining some of their strength back. Suddenly, the gravity pulling her and the others towards the green light, stopped and they were suspended. A loud, ear-splitting screech sounded above them all just before being sucked aggressively into the green light.

Time stopped, for how long, Hope didn’t know, but when she emerged, nothing around her looked familiar, nothing felt familiar. She was no longer floating towards a blinding green light, she was standing on a crumbling cliff, overlooking other crumbling cliffs, shadowed by a dark and ominous sky. The air was red, yes the air was visible and it was a thick smokey red that waved over the depths and trenches of this world, the unknown of death that Hope now knew. Hope wasn’t stupid and she didn’t forget seeing the site of her lifeless, mangled body or the broken hearts of her family when they were told the news. But this? This was not what Hope was expecting.

She continued to scan her surroundings, taking in the site of the dinosaur like creatures soaring in the sky with a large and charmingly decrepit castle in the middle of the chaos that unfolded around her. She saw shadows eating other shadows, creatures crawling in all the cracks that ran across the landscape like a river would between sections of land. One of the flying creatures let out a screech as it dived right for her. Panic took over as there wasn’t anywhere to run. She wished that she could disappear, to be out of sight from that massive, carnivorous creature. Just as the creature soared over her head to clamp it’s hungry looking claws around her, she vanished right before it’s eyes and reappeared down by the castle, stuck in the murky water that surrounded it. At least, Hope thought it was water but it was not and she had no interest in finding out what exactly it was that she had landed in. As she trudged her way across and towards the castle, her feet became heavier. Her entire center had become heavier and heavier the closer she got to the castle. She had only taken a few steps but all the energy was drained out of her and she was crawling up the steps, out of breath. Or well, whatever breath the dead had, she was almost out of it. To Hope’s surprise, the door to the castle opened.

“Ah, Ms. Mikaelson, you’re quite early. We weren’t expecting you for another fortnight.” A fancy looking man in a dark blue victorian looking suit and top hat stepped out into the entryway, looking down at the grime-covered Hope who was on her hands and knees, trembling to keep herself up from collapsing on the steps. She looked up at him and saw a smile plastered across his face, something that was supposed to look endearing but was fake and forced.

“Uh.. I’m sorry, do I know you? Where am I?” Hope managed to get words out, her breath came back to her the moment the man stepped out from behind the doors.

“We’ll get to that. First, in you go.” He smiled as he picked her up with ease to put her on her feet and gently pushed her into the castle. She tried to protest but the site of the foyer took her by surprise, yet again. It was like another dimension in here, nothing like the gloom and doom, war of the worlds scene she had just witnessed outside. It was a castle fit to fulfill anyone’s fantasy. It was pristine and immaculate and every bit enchanting as a castle should be. Though she wasn’t given the time to admire the decor since the fancy man seemed insistent on moving her along the hallways and up several flights of stairs and down more hallways. It was never ending and Hope was beginning to sense the castle itself was infinite, regardless having a finite size and shape from it’s exterior look.

“If you have any confusion whatsoever as to where you are and what you’re doing here, the bottom line is that you’re dead. Welcome to the after life.” The man sounded bored but had a broad smile still strewn across his face, like one would if they were stuck working a job they hated but had to keep their detest hidden. Hope kept up with his pace as much as possible but he was a tall man, or ghost, or ghost man, and she was still short even in death.

“I remember dying but is this it? Is this what happens to everyone when they die? They end up trapped inside of this looping big castle, surrounded with that constant battlefield outside?” Hope asked just as they reached two large wooden doors that had intricate little vine designs all along the edges.

“Yes and no. Only the special ones make it to the castle one way or another, and you made it here in one piece which is quite fascinating. Some fade away out there and become nothing but shadows devouring other shadows, stuck in a time warp where they continuously are brought back just to hunt their fellow kin and eat them over and over again. Some end up in the soul pit, which isn’t any better. It’s crowded and you’re pretty much stuck there for all eternity listening to each other’s cries and moans. Quite depressing. And then there’s Oblivion, which is death for the dead. But since you’re here, you have nothing to worry about.” The man answered with a large but sinister grin as they entered through the wooden doors and were met with a small crowd of other entities or spirits who looked just as confused to be here as Hope was. The room was different from the hallways. While those had been plain and dim, this room was bright and majestic like the foyer. It was lively with color, no pun intended for the pastel looking ghosts.

“Wait.. what exactly is Oblivion?” Hope asked the man, doing her best to keep her focus away from the loud stillness of the room they entered but he waved her question off as if she had never asked it.

“Now then, I shall leave you to it. Everything will be explained by Lord Than and all will become very clear very soon.” The man tipped his hat and vanished without another word. The doors shut behind her just as the room started to rumble. Something was coming and panic shook through every spirit locked in the room with her. There wasn’t any place for them to hide, there wasn’t a way out, there was only the waiting. At long last, a shadow loomed over and the color was washed from the room. A figure appeared out of black vapor on the balcony of the second floor which Hope only noticed now when her head snapped in that direction as if it was an order directed at her.

“My fellow brethren. Welcome to your afterlife. _I_ , am Lord Than.” The figure’s voice reigned over Hope and the others.

“Only a select few are allowed to make it through the desolate land of the dead to enter the palace, and here you all are. I understand that confusion must be sinking deep into your dead hearts, so please do allow me to explain.” The man on the balcony wasn’t like any of the pastel looking spirits that surrounded Hope, he wasn’t a shadow like the creatures outside of the castle. Hope wasn’t quite sure if the figure identified as a man at all. He was half man and half beast, as if Dr. Jekyll got caught in mid-transformation into Mr. Hyde and there was no way to reverse it. One half looked prim and proper and pruned for perfection. The other half looked like a babbling, boisterous, barbaric baboon. His voice was deep and calming but manipulative, thought Hope. She looked around with her eyes since her head seemed to be glued into place. Everyone but her looked at him as if he held all the secrets and answers to the universe. Hope knew better, if something seemed too good to be true, it’s because it’s actually bad.

“All of you were meant for something great in your lives, something only you could accomplish. Something you didn’t get to accomplish because you were met with death earlier than expected. And now you’re here, wondering what it is that is being offered to you at this very crucial moment of your death. Well, you see, you have a choice to make. Death, as you saw from what lies outside of this palace, isn’t all angels and halos like most of us were brought up to believe. There is no heaven, no hell, no purgatory. Though I supposed you would argue that outside of this palace, it is hell. I assure you, it is not. There is another way to spend your afterlife though, one that doesn’t involve eating each other or listening to whiny cries or not existing at all.” The man-beast gave his speech and everyone was mesmerized except for Hope. She could sense the bullshit in everything that was being said.

“What’s the catch?” Hope asked as she instinctively took a step forward and found that she was suddenly able to move her head and body again. That invisible force that had kept her in place was lifted but not for everyone else. The man-beast did not look happy, nor did he look angry with Hope’s sudden outburst, he narrowed his eyes on her but kept his composure more or less.

“Eager for your eternity of death I see. Well, it’s simple really. You can choose to walk out of here and take your chances at judgement and end up a shadow creature or whiny soul. _Or_ , you can take a simple test. Based on the results, you either get to go back to the land of the living with minor restrictions, or you get to live in the palace. Beats trying to survive out there.” The man’s voice became more enchanting than before and while Hope knew he was full of it, she was starting to have a sinking feeling that she didn’t actually have a choice at all. _But he did say that there’s a chance to go back to the living world_ , Hope thought and was confused by it.

“What do you mean by going back? You mean, be brought back to life?” Hope managed to ask her question with incredible effort, doing her best to fight against the invisible force that was trying to take hold of her again and make her _obedient._ Lord Than smiled with a wicked hint behind his eyes.

“You’ll be able to travel between the realm of the dead and the living but no. You are dead, there is no such thing as being brought back to life. _But_ you will be able to be around the people and things you love rather than facing the darkness that lies outside of this palace.” He answered and everyone around her turned their eyes to her, as if waiting for her to agree, as if all of their eyes were Lord Than’s eyes, challenging her to refuse his offer. A coldness washed over Hope and for the first time, she truly felt dead and alone. If she could be around her family again that was all that mattered. She didn’t nod or say okay or give any signal that she was consenting to taking Lord Than up on the offer, but he saw the shift in her.

“Glad to have your cooperation Ms. Mikaelson, you’ve made quite the wise decision. Now then, if you’d all line up, the doors to your death exams will open momentarily.” Everyone shuffled into two lines in front of the huge double doors that appeared just below the bannister where Lord Than was just a moment ago. He had disappeared the moment Hope shifted her gaze to the doors that materialized.

Two by two, the lot of them were entering the doors. It was pitch black from what Hope could see but she wasn’t afraid as to where it would lead her. If she could get back to her family, appear to them and tell them what happened and why they should not mourn her, then everything would be okay. The line was getting shorter and before she knew it, Hope was enveloped by the darkness behind the doors but it was only for a moment. When the darkness had cleared and light carried through her surroundings, she knew exactly where she was.

The living room wasn’t home but it was familiar, a room from her childhood where she would spend her afternoons with her three best friends. It was newer looking than the last time she had been there and full of pictures of a loving family before they had broken. There was the sound of a soft cry that wafted towards her and without hesitation Hope turned to find a pair of young girls crying behind the large couch in the room. One had bright blonde hair while the other had dark brown hair. They were cradling each other, crying into each other’s shoulders while muffled shouting echoed in the background. _Josie and Lizzie_ , Hope thought as she tried to reach the kid versions of her two best friends but the moment she moved to take a step forward, the shouting became louder. The scene changed in front of her, bringing her to the kitchen of the same house where a man and a woman were arguing. They were screaming at each other, unaware that the little girls in their home were not tucked into bed and were in fact listening in on their fight.

Words were exchanged. _Drunk, workaholic, dead beat, never around._ Hope remembers hearing these words herself when she was younger. Josie and Lizzie’s parents divorced when they were younger. Their father could never keep a steady job, he was always drinking and always had a temper. He never laid a hand on his daughters or his wife, but that didn’t mean his temper was any less scary. Hope was getting a front row seat to their fight and while she was concerned as to the scene unfolding before her, she was equally confused as to what she was doing here. How was this supposed to be a test? Before she could look around for more clues as to what she was supposed to do, she found Josie standing next to her. Not the little girl that was still crying behind the couch with her sister, but another one that replicated her current age in the real world.

“Jo?” Hope whispered but Josie said nothing. She didn’t so much as glance at Hope or send her a signal that she had heard her. No acknowledgement whatsoever.

“Jo, what’s going on?” Hope tried again but this time she laid her hand on her shoulder and immediately Josie began screaming which prompted Hope to pull her hand away and to look in the direction Josie was looking. The scene had changed, she hadn’t heard glass shattering but it was all over the kitchen floor. She didn’t hear a body dropping but there in the middle of the kitchen, was Josie and Lizzie’s mom laying there, unmoving and not breathing.

“Dad please don’t.. please..” Hope looked up just in time to see Josie and Lizzie’s dad plunge the broken wine glass into his youngest daughter’s gut. The younger version of Lizzie was begging her father not to hurt her while both the younger Josie and teenage Josie were nowhere to be found. Young Lizzie let out her last breath as the father dropped her to the floor before turning on Hope.

“You did this. This is your fault.” He said but he wasn’t talking to Hope, she could tell he wasn’t referring to her because if Josie wasn’t able to see her earlier, neither was he. Trembling, Hope slowly turned around to see young Josie behind her, curling up against the cabinets, crying and whimpering from the site she just witnessed. Hope tried yet again to reach her childhood friend but it was too late. Josie was being picked up, tossed and thrown around, but just before Josie was about to meet her end everything paused around her and a portal of black vapor appeared. Lord Than stepped through the portal to stand before her, a smug look of pride spread across his face.

“You truly are an impressive piece of work Ms. Mikaelson.” He said as he circled around her to take in the suspended scene around him. With a wave his hand everything disappeared and they were once again back in that large holding room, just outside the double doors she had walked through not too long ago. Except this time, it was just the two of them.

“What.. what was that?” Hope asked, feeling her gravity shifting back to that unwelcome pull towards Lord Than. Almost like a loose leash that Lord Than could tug and tighten at any time he pleased.

“That my dear, is your special power. We’ve had others but not one like you before, and definitely not one as powerful as you are. A pure astral right before my eyes. Yes, you would bode well under my dominion.” Before Hope could protest to inquire for more information and clarification, Lord Than snapped his fingers and a pair of black bangles clasped over Hope’s wrists. She realized her mistake then. He wasn’t here to set her free back to her loved ones, he was here to control her and use her and now she had no other choice to obey. As long as those rings were bound around her wrists, she was his prisoner and reluctant but obedient servant all in one.

“Come, we have much to discuss.” He told Hope and led the way out through another black portal. Hope didn’t hesitate, she followed after him unwillingly. They appeared in what seemed to be a small but quaint room, at the top most part of the highest tower in the palace. Hope knew what this was, it was her prison cell. A cell that incorporated all her favorite things from canvases and paints to dozens of books along the wall shelves. It was a hospitable prison cell but a prison cell nonetheless.

“As you probably figured out by now, you are able to materialize in front of your loved ones or any living being for that matter, but they would not be able to see you, or touch you or communicate with you. I did promise that you would be able to travel back between here and the living, which you will. Every night, you will descend upon the residents of Mystic Falls and wreak havoc upon their dreams. You see, humans need to fear death. Fear of the humans is what provides us with the energy to remain here in the afterlife as we are, rather than fading to Oblivion. What better way to increase their fear than in their own dreams? What you witnessed just now was your friend’s very own nightmare. You are able to manifest your entire self as you are, without the need to take a different form, and you’re able to do so in a person’s dreams nonetheless, completely undetected. If you haven’t figured out how it works, then allow me to explain. Your test involved me sending you to a random person in your life to see what would become of the situation the moment you made contact with them. Except you were different, you had apparated into your friend’s dream instead of right next to her sleeping form, which quickly turned into a nightmare the moment you tried to make physical contact.” Lord Than explained as he looked out of the small window that was towards the north side of the room, taking in the surroundings of the castle. _So what was she supposed to be? A harbinger of bad dreams?_ Hope thought to herself and kept silent about these questions.

“So.. I’m basically a trigger for night terrors? If I had known that this was what my eternity of death would be like then I-” Hope spoke but was waved off before she could finish what she was going to say, and like an obedient servant, she shut her mouth.

“Then you would’ve still chosen this path because like everyone else, the chance to see your family and friends is too great a necessity to you. Just the mere thought of standing in the same room as your loved ones already creates too much allure for you to pass up.” Lord Than said then turned to Hope once more.

“During the day, you’re free to roam the town in which your soul is tethered to, doing whatever it is that you want to do. But at night, when those bracelets beckon, you will follow and you will create the most dreadful of nightmares and you will create them as I see fit. Failure to do so will merit severe punishment.” His voice wasn’t terrifying nor did it sound full of menace but his tone was powerful that it was indeed very terrifying and full of menace. Hope said nothing but they both knew that her silence meant her agreement. Before Lord Than left, he gestured to a small symbol on what seemed to be a closet door. It looked like the sign of the cross but instead of the small stem of line at the top, it was replaced with an upside down teardrop.

“When you wish to go to the living, think of something or someone you wish to see from your life and walk through. When it’s time to return, draw that symbol upside down and a portal will open to take you back.” Without another word, Lord Than evaporated, leaving Hope alone in her _room_ but she didn’t plan on staying.

She thought of her father, remembering how they used to paint together on Sunday mornings and how happy it made her for those few hours when it was just the two of them. The symbol glowed and she stepped through the door. It was like being sucked into a vortex and if Hope was alive, the air would’ve been drained out of her. A beat later she was standing in her family’s backyard, behind her father who stood in front of an empty canvas. The sight of him took Hope by surprise, she didn’t think she’d see him again and yet, here she was. Here she was, just within arms reach but completely and utterly worlds away.

“Dad..?” Hope’s voice trembled as she stepped up beside him. She knew he wouldn’t be able to see her but still she had allowed herself that sliver of hope. That even if he couldn’t see her, that maybe he’d sense her presence, feel and know that she was there with him. But nothing, no raise of his shoulders, no click of his tongue, no tilt of his head, completely unaware that what he was aching for was right there next to him. Without warning, her father picked up the paints and brushes laid out and tossed them at the canvas, knocking it over and yelling in anguish before dropping to his knees to stare at the mess he made. Hope watched as her father let out his pain, hands to her mouth, afraid that her cry of pain would bring him even more sadness. This is not what she wanted.

The house behind her started to buzz with activity. A tea kettle screaming, ready to be poured for a cup of tea or coffee. Sizzling oil on a hot pan indicating the beginnings of bacon being fried to the crisp. She looked back to her father who had wiped away the stray tears on his cheeks before leaning over to clean up the mess in front of him. She took a closer look and found the usual clean scuff on her father’s jaw had grown untamed, indicating she was in the death realm far longer than the hours it had felt like. Shaking, Hope knelt beside him and placed her hand on his shoulder, except it phased right through him, causing her to sigh in great frustration. She was right here yet she couldn’t even offer a comforting hand for her father. She tried again, putting forth all the energy she could into her hands but to no avail, they phased right through her father. She tried again and again, she yelled his name and even attempted to jump on his back like when she was a little girl and completely fell face forward into the ground. Each time she tried, she was met with failure. Each time she failed, new tears would form over the old ones.

“Klaus. Come have some breakfast.” A sad and delicate voice calls out behind her. _Mom._ Without thinking, Hope pushed herself up off the ground and went sprinting over to her mom. More than anything, she wanted to feel the warmth of her hug, inhale her tall grass and rain water scent; the scent of summer, and listen to her soothing voice saying how much she loves Hope. Before she could experience another failed collision, the cuffs around her wrists tugged. There was a split second before the vortex took her again, a split second that allowed her to look into her mother’s sorrowful eyes and realize that she had made the wrong choice. Her father didn’t know she was there and neither did her mother, they would never know she was right there. She had sentenced herself to an eternity of desolation. An eternity of being taunted with the idea of reuniting with her family and now that she knew what the ether consisted of, she’d never be reunited with them. She had unknowingly chosen the forlorn path and she desperately wished she could take it back.

_GASP._  
WHOOSH.  
THUMP. 

The vortex had taken her and spit her out at the feet of Lord Than.

“Right on time. I trust you had a pleasant time with your family?” The evil glinted in Lord Than’s eyes and the sadistic humor in his voice caused a wave of ghostly nausea to come over Hope. She wanted to vomit in his face.

“I thought I’d be able to reach them. I didn’t think it’d be like this. You didn’t say it would be like this.” Hope told him as she brought herself to her feet.

“I did say that they wouldn’t be able to see, feel or communicate with you. What did you think it was going to be like? Not that it matters now. Come along.” Lord Than walked and Hope was yanked in his direction against her will. The harder she fought against the invisible tether, the harder the pull became.

“Where the hell are you taking me, let me go!” Hope yelled and continued struggling to break free of something she couldn’t see.

“Oh I will.” Lord Than walked through doors that appeared out of smoke and Hope was pulled through but they weren’t in any room. They weren’t even in the palace or anywhere in the chaos outside of it. They were on earth. Well, more like in earth since they weren’t technically on the ground. They were floating over the apex of Mystic Falls, able to see the entire town. It was dark, just about the time people laid their bodies down for a good night’s slumber. _It was morning a couple of minutes ago_ , Hope thought. Time in the death realm seemed to compress hours into mere minutes.

“What.. what are we doing here?” Hope faltered for a moment but finished asking her question as she looked out, spotting the homes of her friends and family and peers. Lord Than didn’t answer.

“Your friend Penelope, she lives in the largest house at the top of Park Hill correct? Start with her.” Lord Than ordered then vanished, leaving Hope wondering what she was brought here to do but the bands on her arms answered all her questions. They glowed a bright and deep red. Hope’s eyes, her beautiful pure blue eyes, turned a searing, sinister red. She wanted to feel someone’s fear, she was ravenous for it. And so that’s exactly what she did. Her friends were her victims, her family were her toys, they were all hers to haunt. Jumping from one dream to another, causing and wreaking havoc, turning happy dreams into gory nightmares. No one could see her, no one could sense her, but everyone felt the terror she brought upon them. The fear radiating off of each dream she visited made her hungry for more. She loved every moment of it.

Until she didn’t.

Hope awoke in her room that doubled as her cell, recalling the events of last night, remembering the looks on everyone’s faces, hearing their screams, watching each of them live out their worst nightmares. Hope fell off her bed feeling a wretched nausea takeover but there was nothing in her to expel. Her dry heaves did nothing to help her guilt. She didn’t ask for this, she didn’t want this. But this was how it was and every night since that first one, after the residents of Mystic Falls went to sleep, she visited them in their dreams, turning their hope into fear the moment she arrived. The more fear she felt, the stronger she got but not just her, everyone in the death realm felt stronger and stronger, by means of her.

_Angel of Nightmares._ That’s what Lord Than had called her and she was. Dreams are supposed to be the last safe place a person could go to feel comfort and find happiness when nothing around them had any hint of joy. Hope took that away, and in its place, she brought despair.

Except for the boy. The boy that would change everything.


End file.
